ADJL: Past and Presence
by faithwriter23
Summary: Older and wiser a year after the events of "Hong Kong Longs", Jake Long final thought he had a proper handle on this American Dragon business until even-more-mysterious-than-usual happenings begin to take place in the magical and human world, opening the door to a flood of things he couldn't have even guessed were being hidden.
1. Prologue

Prologue

The trolls laughed as they walked down the alley, proudly carrying their catch from their latest robbery. It was the dead of night on a work week, one of the few times the "City that never sleeps" was indeed quiet and still, the perfect time for a robbery, especially those of by the magical variety.

"Hold on a second fellas, this is getting heavy," one of the trolls grunted to the group, sighing as he dropped his sack and leaned back against the wall to catch his breath.

"Already Frank?" one of his comrades complained, chuckling as he dropped his load as well, "Jeez, you really gotta remember to bulk up those muscles instead of that belly on rotten chili fries." To this the rest of the group snickered, but they set their bags down too, all of them old and past their prime so that they had to rob humans in the first place.

"What'd we even get anyway? Some TVs, some old radios? Man, how are we even going to sell this old crap, Bobby, seems like we did the owner a favor by taking it in the first place!"

"Shut up! We'll figure it out all right! Damnit, we gotta get money somehow, we're in too deep with-" Suddenly Bobby noticed a shadow move across the wall, jumping for a second as he finally dropped his bag along with the others.

"Hey Bobby-"

"Shh! Shut up! I just-I just think I saw something move." Opening his sack and pulling out his club, he held his fingers to his lips as he moved carefully over to a nearby trash bin, growling as he swept it away with one swell swing. He was mildly surprised but relieved to find nothing there, not even a trace, feeling embarrassed as he turned to the group to laugh it off and save face.

Turning back, the club dropped from his hand as his mouth fell open, shocked at what his eyes couldn't believe.

All his friends were lying on the ground badly beaten and unconscious, having all been taken out without even making one sound.

"No-No!" Turning on his heels to run, he suddenly and inexplicably felt the wind pick up behind him, so stunned he couldn't even scream as he felt something from the darkness wrap tight around him like a snake, holding him tight in that spot as it brought itself behind him with a cool but bone chilling hiss.

"I wasn't behind the trashcan." Promptly turned fro to face his attacker, Bobby opened his mouth in a scream he never released as his mouth was shaking too much at the sight of who his attacker was, his whole body going pale like a sheet as they leaned in to interrogate him.

"Now, you're going to answer my questions, and then I might let you live, got it?" Bobby couldn't help but nod, his legs quaking so much he thought he'd never stand on his own again he was so afraid.

"Good. Very good. So tell me, where did you get this stuff? And more importantly, where can I find the one they call the American Dragon?"


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Jake Long smiled as he heard his alarm go off, actually surprising himself since it was the first day of school. He couldn't help himself though, because today was the day he had been waiting for a long time, almost a year now: the day that Rose finally came back to New York City.

In hindsight, after the run in with her family the first time in Hong Kong it had been a wonder that she had been allowed to come at all. Fortunately, Fu Dog had more of his mind erasing potion, and after carefully slipping it to her parents they had quickly forgotten the incident of the "crazy dragon boy", but were now upset with Jake for keeping their daughter out late, way past her curfew. Rose had tried to take all the blame herself, explaining that she was the one who had snuck out, but still the Marshalls were upset, allowing them to visit on the summer on a strict, often supervised basis. Jake had minded, but only a little since the two were so happy to be reunited, making sure to be perfectly good so that after a while Rose's parents relented to the two dating, even allowing Rose to visit twice over the past year, once around Thanksgiving and another around Spring Break. Long distance hadn't been too bad, but admittedly the two missed each other, and everyone could tell, so when Rose suddenly emailed to announce that she was moving back to New York to study ballet for the 10th grade school year Jake had been so happy he nearly quite literally flew through the roof.

She was staying with a host family strategically picked just a few minutes away, Jake giddy with anticipation of picking her up at the airport later with his family to help her "get adjusted" AKA spend some quality face to face time with his girlfriend in the first of many days-

 _ZZZZZZZZZZZ! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!_

Jake's eyes quickly looked over to the nightstand again to see his cellphone ringing, the words "GRAMPA" clear on the screen immediately making him pick up the phone. With age and the ultimate defeat of the Dark Dragon had come a reorganization of how the Longs took care of their magical duties, two of the most prominent ones that Jake had gotten much more serious in balancing his life of school and "work" as a magical protector and he in turn had modernized his means.

"Grampa?"

"Jake, it is most urgent you get over here right now." Jake looked over at the clock, his eyes widening realizing that he was already a bit late in his morning wake up.

"Now? But Gramps, I'm already gonna be late for school-"

"Jake." Grampa's voice sounded graver than usual, or at least than it had in a while, chilling Jake a little as he sat up straighter and started to really wake up. "Now. There's something you specifically need to see."

"Okay." Jake nodded, getting up from the bed and starting to quickly get ready, phone still in his ear as he entered serious mode. "Should I bring Trixie and Spud too? Haley?"

"Just Trixie and Spud should do," Grampa said, his voice still grave, "And hurry. I fear the more time we let pass the harder this will be to figure out."

After getting his mom to make a call and gathering up his friends before they had the chance to head off to class, Jake and crew quickly made their way to Grampa's shop, the young dragon somewhat scared of what he might find. Grampa hadn't been this worried since the Dark Dragon had come back, actually having calmed down in the past year to allow Jake more freedom to be a kid and hang out while allowing Haley and himself to handle some of the load. This, however, he had said was strictly for him, and while he had gained and lost a lot of enemies, few would leave him a personal calling card that could upset Grampa so much as to call him urgently from school.

"Gramps!" Jake called as he burst into the shop, halfway morphed into dragon form with Trixie and Spud right behind him, ready to fight. They all froze as they saw the shop looking as normal as ever, Grampa and Fu Dog sitting down staring back at them rather calmly.

"Well? Where's the emergency?" Jake said, rather confused as he morphed down while his rather annoyed friends came into the shop with him.

"Yeah, I'm missing the first day of school, the perfect scoping and stunting opportunity, for this?" Trixie lamented, throwing her hands up in irritated disbelief, "I had a spa day and everything ready to look good at school today!"

"Yeah, and I actually showered today!" Spud agreed. Trixie and Jake both gave him a look and scooted away a little, with Lao Shi holding up his hand to calm them down.

"I didn't quite say it was an emergency, though it might be, but I need you to see it, young ones," he explained, getting up and going to the back of the shop. The others sighed as they followed him, with Jake hoping it was something worth it and not just a test like Grampa used to give to test his commitment.

Getting to the magical section of the shop, the three teens froze as they came into the room, not believing their eyes.

All of Grampa's old merchandise was arranged on the floor, strange calligraphy symbols scrawled quickly but neatly into each of the surfaces like they were trying to form a code. What was even more strange, however, was what was scrawled beneath it, the words AM-DRAG US DRAGON SOSASAP carved into the floorboard almost like with a dark, sharp crayon.

Jake's eyes widened in shock, Grampa's visible discomfort worsening as he noticed this in his grandson but trying to stay as composed as possible as he spoke.

"See? I don't-I don't know what it means, but it's clearly a message for you, an urgent one."


	3. Chapter 2

_Sorry it's been a while!_

 _I wanna say thanks to all the support I've already gotten from so many of you, thank you for being so interested but not being bossy about it, I really appreciate it! don't worry, the plot is about to get moving kinda fast now and things are definitely about to get very interesting, so stick with it and let's continue cracking this thing down!_

Chapter 2

Jake looked at his grandfather in surprise then, his nose flaring a little as his eyes widened again.

"YOU don't know what it means? But aren't you like….good at reading this kind of stuff? Isn't this _your_ language?"

"This isn't regular Chinese, kid; even I can't read it," Fu Dog said, coming from deeper in the shop with his googles on, a clear sign that he had been working, "Quite frankly we barely know that it is Chinese because the first two symbols are regular Cantonese, but then the buck stops there in our understandability."

"Well if you guys can't understand this, what hope does Jake have? No offense, but he's not exactly good at languages AKA D in Spanish last semester." Spud blurted out. Jake shot him a look then, with Spud chuckling sheepishly as he stepped back a little.

"No offense, I mean."

"Actually, Spudinksi, that's why we called you and the girlie here," Fu said, pointing at the two of them, "It's Jake's message, but with your computer and her intuition about things you're gonna help him figure it out. And fast, cuz it's fading the more daylight we pour on it; seems like it's a message to be read at night but well-"

"We don't have time," Lao Shi said simply, nodding as he and Fu Dog exited back into the shop, "Good luck, young ones, and hurry." The trio all looked at each other as the bead curtain clattered back straight, with Spud shrugging as he sat down on the floor and pulled out his computer. Trixie shrugged as well, and sat down on the other side to stare closely at the appliances, leaving Jake still standing rather hesitant as he stared at it all.

 _I really don't know what any of this means….._ he thought, but then he thought of Grampa's face again and how worried he seemed, sighing as he sat down and began what seemed like an impossible task.

Two hours later and the group was no closer to figuring it out, Trixie groaning as she set down a toaster she had been inspecting for what seemed hours.

"Ughhhh! This is pointless! We're no closer and it's been for-everrrrrrr!"

"Yeah, I've been crunching the language database for hours, and so far all I've gotten is that a duck s somehow involved," Spud sighed, closing his computer and setting it aside, "Sorry Jake, but I think this is pretty pointless."

"Yeah," Trixie agreed, standing up, "I dunno, maybe this is just a prank or something to scare ya'll or something, and it's not something to be taken seriously-"

"No," Jake said, standing up and shaking his head, "This means something. Grampa would not be this concerned if it didn't mean something, and it says right there 'AM-DRAG, US DRAGON SOSASAP', in plain English, so it was clearly meant for me-"

And then Jake stopped, realizing something, getting closer to the words of English scrawled in the floor and peering close at the last word.

"Wait a minute!" he shot up, smiling a little as he gather his two friends close, "Guys, this is shorthand! Text speak, Slang! SOS-they mean S.O.S, save on ship, ASAP, as soon as possible; they just didn't space it out!" Trixie squinted closer and smacked herself a little for not recognizing a phrase she used all the time, while Spud opened back up his computer.

"So if that's text speak, then does that mean the rest of this is?" he asked, trying to type it into the database, "But what type? Gramps said he doesn't recognize it-" This time Trixie's face lit up, jumping up and down a little as she burst out with her deduction.

"Because Gramps is old! It's not his slang, it's new slang and so-"

"Spud, look up Chinese textspeak into the database-magical Chinese textspeak, only from about 10 years to now," Jake ordered quickly.

Spud did as he was told while leveling the computer's camera at the code, the database pinging as it finally came up with results, the program quickly translating the message into a readable language.

"It is! It is Chinese magical textspeak, Cantonese to be exact!"

"But what does it say boy?" Trixie said, eagerly pushing him aside to see, "Come on boy, I might just be able to make it to the end of the last period if we hurry this up!"

All three crowded around as the program pinged again with the completed message, Jake's eyes in particular widening at the message:

HI NYC LIBRARY SECTION 800 895 1002 9-5 PM

HURRY

"The New York City Library? A book did this?" Spud scratched his head in confusion.

"No fool, that's were who did this wants us to meet them!" Trixie snapped at him, smacking him a little in the back of the head.

"We better hurry too, like it says" Jake said, grabbing his bag, "No use in dragging this out any longer." He started to race for the back door when Trixie stopped him by grabbing his shoulder, pulling him back quickly.

"Wait a minute, aren't you gonna tell your grandpa?" she asked, giving him an obvious look of concern. Jake stopped for a minute and thought, then paused as he shook his head decisively.

"No, he's already worried enough about this; if we just handle it quickly it won't even matter. Besides, it's my message, so it's not really his issue to be involved in."

"Whatever you say, Jakey," Trixie reluctantly relented, and she grabbed her bag and rushed after him along with Spud, ready to go end this mystery once and for all.


	4. Chapter 3

Sorry it's been a while since I've updated, I've bee really busy travelling and studying this month!

Thanks for the continued support and comments, most of what you guys are asking will indeed be addressed but in the story, and of course, yes things are definitely about to get going!

Chapter 3

The trio tucked up their skateboards as they arrived at the library, rushing inside as quickly but quietly as possible.

"What time is it anyway?" Trixie whispered as they looked around for the proper section.

"11:21," Jake answered, turning on his dragon eyes to try to pinpoint the exact book they were looking for.

"Awww, there goes lunch," Spud groaned loudly, rubbing his stomach as it rumbled, "Who knew I'd miss recycled breakfast pizza so badly?"

"Shhh!" a librarian quickly shushed him, the tall teen turning red.

"Hold up guys, I see!" Grabbing both his friends, Jake quickly dragged them along as he raced to the spot. It was rather hidden, deep in the back corner where little light shown, the group actually getting something of a chill as they approached the exact spot where the book was supposed to be.

"What? But it's empty!"

"This doesn't make any sense," Jake said, on edge as he scanned the shelf for any type of trick, "It said that-" Suddenly he felt something shift in the lighting around them, his instincts causing him to immediately turn right as the shadows seemed to spring at him.

"Trixie, Spud, duck!" And Jake quickly blew out a discreet but hot blast of fire that blasted the first shadow, but not the second as it sprung out and attacked him. Spud yelled as they were thrown back, with Jake struggling to protect his friends and fight of the shadow creature AND keep quiet, managing to morph into full dragon form and fully toss the creature back against the wall.

"What the-" Trixie started to say, but she didn't have time to finish, from the shadows around them ten more shadow creatures popping out to fight, rushing in on them and managing to pin the trio in quite a tight spot.

"Ha-help!" Spud cried out, his eyes wide as he pathetically tried to fight two of the creatures out. Suddenly Jake heard what sounded like a magic blast, trying to crane his head in the direction but still pinned down until he suddenly heard another magical blast, suddenly freed from the shadow creatures so he could see something that shocked him.

Another dragon was fighting off the creatures quite effortlessly, its silver white skin both stark and blending with the shadows around them. It breathe out a fire so hot and fast it burned cool and almost invisibly blue as it zoomed over Jake's head, completely obliterating another emerging shadow. Trixie and Spud stared too as they were quickly freed from their attackers, none of them having ever seen this dragon before.

"Quickly!" the dragon spoke to all of them, its voice that of a girl about their age, "Get to the closet behind, behind me!" Without questioning it Jake nodded, grabbing Trixie and Spud with his tail and quickly snaking back to open the door, startled to find it just an ordinary janitor's closet.

"What the-?" Jake gasped, but suddenly the other dragon was in front of him, whipping her tail back and shoving him inside before destroying the last shadow creature and closing the door behind them all as quickly as possible. Jake was startled again as he saw the door magically seal as another weird Chinese symbol flashed on the back of the door for just a brief moment, realizing the dragon had enchanted the room right as it morphed down into human form.

He was right, the dragon's voice was of a girl his age, and a very pretty Chinese girl at that. For a moment in the shadows she looked a lot like Jasmine the nix, having much of the same stature and silhouette but then stepping into the light and showing she was indeed totally different. Her skin was much lighter, fairer, like she hadn't been in the sun for a while, and even though her hair was pretty bedraggled he could still tell it was quite a bit long, probably far down her back and beyond. It was her face, however, and her eyes that really caught him in and off guard, something was vaguely familiar to him, like he had seen them before somewhere for only just a second, a wonderful silver-blue color that was unique beyond a doubt.

"Okay," the girl said, smiling a little as she looked directly at Jake and bowed, "American Dragon, thank you for coming. As you can see, it's rather urgent that I need your help."

"Hold up, hold up, hol' up!" Trixie interrupted, just the slightest miffed as she crawled up to her feet, still shocked. "So you the one that left that confusing-ass message? You the one that called us here?"

"Yes," the girl said, not intimidated in the slightest like people usually would with Trixie in such a state, "I'm-I'm sorry, who are you-?" Trixie blinked for a few moments, startled herself that her usual tatic didn't work, getting close and personal to the other girl and trying to intimidate her that way.

"No, you need to tell us who you are because I am missing prime boy scoping time and you-"

"Hold up, hold up, Trixie, hold up," Spud quickly eased her down, taking hold of her shoulder and gently taking her back, "Just give her a chance to explain and-"

"Well explain fast cuz I got things to do, ya feel me?" The girl looked at Trixie a little confused, turning back to Jake with a calm but somewhat miffed face, cold.

"This is why I meant for you to come solo, American Dragon," she said, raising her eyebrow in slight annoyance as she cast a look at the two humans, "Who are these two to you anyway? Bodyguards? Seems like you protect them more than they protect you."

"They're my friends," Jake said defensively, staring back just as sternly as she looked at him, "But enough about me, why are we here? Why did you leave that message at my grampa's shop?" The girl looked down at the floor a little then, looking back up at him somewhat gravely with a look reminiscent to Grampa earlier.

"Because I need your help. Badly. This is something only you can do." Jake saw the seriousness in her eyes and entered serious mode once again, wondering if maybe things were as grave as grampa believed just from the fear in her eyes alone.

"What is it?"

"The Dark Dragon." Even Trixie and Spud froze and stiffened in the background, with Jake's eyes shrinking in as the girl continued to speak directly to them.

"He's coming back.

For revenge.

And I need your help to warn the Dragon Council."


	5. Chapter 4

**_IMPORTANT GREAT NEWS!_**

 ** _So the thing is, my brain went on a total writing frenzy and yeah, I finished this story. I even started on the next one a little bit (because yeah this is a series). So no more waits I think, I'm finishing it today!_**

 ** _Yay!_**

 ** _And why that's yay is because I plan there to be lots of sequels much shorter than this because as one of you suggested this is sort of my shot at a third season, and so...YAY MORE STORIES!_**

 ** _It's been a real pleasure, and thank you for your continued support, now let's light this candle, really!_**

Chapter 4

"When?" Jake said next, his voice deadly serious as he stared at the dragon girl.

"Tomorrow night."

"Wait a minute, didn't we lock that guy away on the magical temple island thing for like 10,000 years?" Spud asked, confused as he stood up and stared at her as well.

"Yeah, so how is it possible that he's coming back-" Trixie started as well.

"Look, you don't get it humans!" the girl snapped at them, obviously flustered as she turned her attention solely to Jake, "I know what I'm talking about! I know things! My powers are connected to the moon and I can feel the eclipse coming, tomorrow night! We need to prepare!"

"Moon Dragon?" Trixie scoffed, shaking her head as she looked to her uncharacteristically quiet friend, "Jackie, you believe this stuff?"

"Well if you don't for me then do it for the Rose!" The girl added quickly.

Jake froze, then uncharacteristically shot up in a rage, morphing halfway into dragon form as he tried to pin the girl down. However, the moon dragon was much too quick for him, almost as if she could see his attack coming, quickly dodging aside and morphing back into her dragon form, almost like the wind as she surged at Jake and caught him back against the wall, her face a still calm as she glared up at him. Trixie and Spud just stood in the corner tensed and ready to fight, Jake at least able to move his hand to signal them not to lest they make the situation worse.

"Don't hurt the messenger," she warned him coolly, Jake unable to even struggle from how strong a grip she had on him, "I don't even know what it means, I want to help, okay?"

"I'm not sure I trust you to help me," Jake seethed back, his pride and confidence going down every second he continued to be unable to free himself.

"Think for a moment then," the girl encouraged him gently, her face still steel, "I'm obviously in danger myself. I just helped you and your friends. I warned you of the danger. Whatever the Rose is, I warned you of the danger to that too. I haven't asked for a thing in return. Now, do you trust me?" Jake stared into her strange eyes, trying to figure it all out until suddenly something clicked, his body relaxing as he just hung in her grip and nodded.

"Yes."

"WHAT?" Trixie exploded, setting down the mop she grabbed in defense and staring at Jake, "What?"

"But dude, she just attacked you," Spud agreed, nodding at Jake, "Then again, you did just attack her and she did just save us so-wait, what were we trying to decide again?" the dragon smiled as she released Jake from her claws, morphing back down to her human form and nodding at them all.

"Thank you. Now, can I make a suggestion? We need to leave this place, now. More are coming."

"What, the Dark Dragon?" Trixie mocked, glaring at her a little as she went to the corner and searched for something.

"More shade demons." They saw her eyes flash black for a second which puzzled them all, the moment interrupted as she came back up with a small backpack, "This place isn't safe any longer, I can only use my seal once and that last attack was it. We need to get far from here."

"Is Kaz's Deli far enough? Cuz man, am I hungry as ever," Spud groaned, his stomach rumbling loudly as he gripped it. They were all stunned as the girl's stomach rumbled as well, the moon dragon smirking out the corner of her mouth as she looked at them.

"Yes, I think that will be just fine. Let's go."

The trio continued to be stunned as the girl stepped out into the city with them, her strange behavior making it clear she didn't belong there. It wasn't that she was obviously an outsider, as she was able to walk normally along the street and not elicit too many stares other than her just being a pretty girl, but peering closer at her each of the three could tell something was wrong.

Trixie noticed first as she saw Lian trying not to gawk at any one thing too long, pacing just a little too fast through the crowd almost as if she was frightened to be around people. And with the buildings, she stared just like an awestruck tourist, though she could also tell she was embarrassed in that every time Trixie caught her she sheepishly tucked her head back down and just continued to walk, her hand gripped incessantly tight to her backpack strap.

Next, Jake noticed her staring at the signs on the street for much longer than a normal New Yorker would, at first wondering if she just couldn't see the writing properly. But she never squinted, always just stared and barely mouthed like she was trying to sound the words out, sometimes staring even after figuring out the words at particular signs, most often every subway sign they passed by so that one time he even had to nudge her along with the back of his foot.

Finally, Spud tried not to notice anything about the pretty stranger because he knew Trixie already didn't like her and he was trying to remain the voice of reason, but when he saw her staring at every bit of food they passed by he knew something was up. Now he was very hungry himself, as they hadn't eaten all day and he had a high metabolism, but when he saw her slip a breadstick off a plate of an unsuspecting patron and quickly scarf it down he was stunned, and stunned again when he saw her slip an apple from a vendor's storefront into her bag, unable to say anything because he knew that bag meant she was homeless and needed it pretty badly.

By the time they reached Katz's, each of the friends had their own suspicions to share, leaving the girl sitting down at the table and reconvening at the bathroom.

"Jake, I don't trust her," Trixie started the huddle first, staring insistently at him, "I mean, we've all seen some weird stuff these last few years but she is pushing it!"

"Hey, just because she's homeless doesn't mean she's some crazy old loon-" Spud started to say.

"But you agree, she's weird right?" Jake interrupted, a little nervous as well, "I mean, I've never seen a dragon like her-act like her, like she's never been in the human world-it's strange. Why?"

"I don't know, but I say we do a little investigation station and find out some more about this complete stranger before we go any further," Trixie urged, "I mean, yeah, she knew Rose, but-well she didn't even know Rose, she just heard it. Heard it from where, though? I wanna find out more."

"Yeah, Jake, this could be a trap," Spud agreed, "I mean she's really pretty and all but-"

"Strange?"


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The trio jumped nearly three feet back as they saw the girl standing behind them, her face calm as she simply looked at them.

"I wasn't following, just going to the bathroom to clean. But yes. I am a foreigner here. And no. I'm not a trap." Now they all just continued to stare, the girl nodding as she opened the bathroom door to go inside, still addressing the friends.

"We'll discuss it more when I come out the bathroom. Yes, I will come back out." With that she went in, leaving the friends dumbfounded and then sheepishly heading back to the front, feeling like they had been caught sneaking out of class. They could all only stare dumbfounded at each other as they ordered and got to the table, the tension high by the time the girl returned, looking much more cheerful and clean so that the swallows of her face were much less visible.

"That's better," the girl sighed, smiling a little as she eyed the sandwich they had bought her, poking at it curiously, "You are right though, you don't know my name, and I don't know yours. We are all strangers here."

"Well we three know each other, it's just you we don't know, so you're the stranger," Trixie quickly reminded her, still blinking at her until she finally stopped inspecting the sandwich and slid it in front of her, still not taking a bite as she looked clearly at all three of them with a small smile.

"Well my name is Lian. I'm a dragon from China and I've only recently entered the human world."

"Only recently?" Jake asked, his eyebrows raising in confusion, "Why?"

Lian's face grew cold as her smile faded a little, now a small smirk as she picked up the sandwich and took a small bite, chewing and swallowing it all before speaking low.

"Not everyone is as privileged as you, American Dragon. Many from the magical world cannot come to the human world so easily. Appearance, customs, structure-it's all very restrictive when you get down to the bottom of it, isn't it?"

"I-guess so?" Jake said, he and Trixie blinking very confused but Spud nodding in agreement as he stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"No, man, but I get it," he agreed, smiling a little as if he had a great thought, "like the oppressive systems of the world keep you guys out, and your oppressive systems of the magical world keep you guys in, and it's like a total bummer that has to happen at all, right?"

Everyone including Lian looked at him with raised eyebrows, Lian smirking a little more as she took another bite of her sandwich.

"The smart human boy's got it, as much as he can anyway."

"So if it's so hard to come here, how'd you get here?" Trixie cut in, clearly not amused at the slight insult to her friend, "Why'd you get here? And why us?" Lian stopped eating and paused for a second, her eyes going mysteriously cold again as she set down the sandwich and looked directly at Jake.

"Your grandfather really keeps you shielded from the magical world doesn't he?"

The green haired teen didn't know how to respond to that, opening and closing his mouth again as he simply stared at her.

"I-"

Suddenly both dragons felt their instincts give rise as the restaurant seemed to grow darker, Trixie and Spud also going on edge as they noticed soon after the shadows beginning to give rise all around them like a cocoon. It was an absolute shock to the trio, then, as Lian's eyes suddenly began to glow bright white light they had to cower from, whispering out a strange sounding Chinese spell they couldn't understand that utterly obliterated all the darkness from the restaurant, the shrill squeals of shade demons fading away before they could even really begin.

"Um-" Trixie said, noticing a nearby patron staring at them with his mouth slightly open, the deli owner staring at them as well.

"We should leave now," Lian said sternly, grabbing up the uneaten food and stuffing it into sweatshirt quickly, rising up and heading for the door. The others were still blinking rapidly trying to gain their sight, Lian growling a little as she grabbed the back of their shirts and yanked them up, smiling apologetically at the still stunned store owner as they all fled out.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"What the-what the hell was that?" Jake finally managed to speak as they ran down the street, struggling to keep a good grip on his skateboard.

"It's clear I know magic," Lian scoffed, continuing to hold on to the still-blinking Trixie and Spud as they raced along, "It's strong stuff, but it gets rid of the shade demons, but now we have to run!"

"If it got rid of the demons, why?" Jake asked, still confused as they turned into an alley and started to slow down, feeling winded from how fast they were going.

"They can track it!" Lian stopped running at the middle of the alley and came to a cool stop, releasing the two humans as she smiled a little at her fellow dragon, "Hey, at least we're all safe now, right? Calm down." Jake nodded as he also came to a stop, a little bewildered at the attitude of this girl. On one hand, she was insulting and mysterious seeming, almost sinister, but then she was friendly and obviously capable but helping him and his friends out, unsure of just where to pin her but starting to at least appreciate her.

Trixie and Spud finally stopped blinking as they crouched on the ground panting, Spud looking up at them with wide eyes.

"Whoa, we were going really fast just then, weren't we?"

"Yes," Lian smiled actually sincere as she helped him up, seeming to be impressed with his comment, "It's called dragon speed, it's very quite fast to humans I've realized, sometimes undetectable, but you recognized it."

"Hey, I felt it too!" Trixie claimed as well, brushing herself off and patting at her hair, "At least, my hair did feel it."

"So what do we do now?" Jake asked, looking to her and a little surprised to find her pulling out the sandwiches and stuffing them quickly into her bag.

"Hmm." The girl gave that same mysterious, guarded smile as she stood back up, slinging her backpack on her back as she eyed them all with a somewhat nervous glint in her eye, Jake noticed to himself. "I have to go now."

"What?" the trio exploded at her, dumbfounded. Lian immediately looked down at her feet, shifting from side to side like she was already ready to flee.

"But you can't just leave us!" Trixie exploded more, "Whatever that magic light thing is you do, we're obviously gonna need it to be safe from the mess you got us into!"

"They're following my magic trail, so if we split up, it'll give you a better head start and a chance to get clean away. I'm saving you from my mess." The three all looked uncertain at each other, with Lian quickly reaching under her shirt and pulling something off, slipping something in Jake's hand as she pulled him forward and looked him clear in the eye, her voice low and stern as she spoke to him.

"Keep that with you at all times, it's a light talisman. It'll keep you safe and help me find you later. Don't take it off at any time or it won't work. I'll be back."

She started to run off, but then turned back and addressed the three of them this time, this time even more serious and low.

"And do not tell your grandfather anything about me or this meeting, understand?" the three nodded, and Lian smiled as she saluted and then suddenly ran off, around the corner before they even managed to blink again.

"She is so weird!" Trixie exclaimed, shaking her head as she looked down at Jake's hand to see it glowing. The teen opened his hand to look at Lian's strange gift, a small clear crystal charm on a string shaped like a crescent moon, the little rock glowing faintly and pulsing a little against his skin, almost like it was alive.

"What is that?" Trixie gasped, her eyes wide as she stared.

"Guys, look at the shadows," spud quickly alerted them, looking around in wonder. The other two looked up to see most of the shadows in the once shaded alley reduced back almost to the ends of the street, Jake looking at the charm in wondering but impressed as he slipped it carefully into his pocket just as he felt his phone ring.

"Uh oh," Spud said knowingly, smacking his forehead as they all caught a glimpse of the caller ID, and Jake gulping as he held the phone away while answering.

"JAAAAKE!"

"Jake!"

The trio looked up as they entered the shop to see Grampa waiting for them angrily, his hand on his hips as he glared at his grandson especially.

"You did not come to dragon training today, young one, and it was not a scheduled day off."

"Sorry, gramps, something important came up-" Jake started to explain, confused and cowed as his grandfather's glare worsened so that even Trixie and Spud shivered at the chill of it.

"What were you doing then?"

"I…" and then Jake froze, remembering what Lian had told him and feeling the talisman in his pocket, gripping it hard as he looked his grandfather in the face nervously.

"I….can't tell you." Lao Shi's face exploded in first shock, then hurt, then rage, going up to his grandson and even from his short stature sending another chill up his spine as he glared at him.

"Why not?"

"I made a promise to someone."

"Who?" Jake gulped, and Trixie saw him shaking a little, quickly stepping in between the two with quick thinking.

"A source! Yeah, just a source, helping us on this thing we have to do for the school paper, but it's no biggie!" Jake looked at her in surprise, but Trixie grunted for him to just go with it, the boy smiling and nodding as genuinely as he could as he straightened up.

"Yup, just a school project for class-"

"The paper-" Spud corrected quickly

"The paper!" then all three chuckled nervously, Lao Shi eyeing them with suspicion as he continued to glare angrily for a few more moments, his face calming as he simply sighed and pointed to the back.

"Fu Dog is expecting you in the back with more important news than your….paper project." The trio continued to smile awkwardly as they quickly shuffled towards the back, Jake looking back at his grandfather going upstairs and feel distressed at the displeased look still on the old man's face. Now that Gramps had more trust and he more maturity, he rarely ever lied to his grandfather anymore, the tension between them now something he hadn't experienced even back in his starting days of mistruths.

 _I hope this girl is worth it,_ he thought to himself, at least trying to smile for Fu as they entered the back of the shop.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

They were all a little surprised to see the floor cleaned up now but the area were the message and appliances had been still taped off, Fu Dog investigating one of the toasters at the table as he turned to them.

"Hey kids, it's getting pretty serious now," Fu Dog greeted them "Something bad is brewing in the underworld, very bad."

"Like on a scale of pixies at the bottom of a well to dark dragon, how bad?" Spud queried, "Unless of course, pixies at the bottom of a well is really bad, and then-"

"Dark Dragon rumored to be returning bad," Fu Dog said, all three noticeably stiffening but Jake going very wide-eyed as he gripped the talisman again.

"That bad, huh?" he tried to play it off, laughing nervously as he cast quick glances at Trixie and Spud, prompting them to also chuckle nervously.

"Hey, kid, this is no laughing matter," Fu Dog said seriously, jumping down from his post to show them a quick vision of the magical underworld, "I know you guys did your thing in putting that guy away in the magic temple for 1,000 years, but well….it may not have been enough. My source from the inside tells me that absolutely everyone is clamouring away in the magical world is whispering about this like never before, and then there's the signs."

"Signs?" Trixie asked, starting to break her cool as nerves set in, "Wh-What signs?"

The vision changed again to show the moon eclipses over the city, showing rapidly as Fu Dog began to explain himself as simply as possible.

"Well, I know you kids didn't notice it, but the moons been acting weird lately. Notice how it hasn't been shining as bright lately? It's a sign that another eclipse may be coming, the very rare eclipse needed to release the temple again, and with it, the Dark Dragon." The trio all looked at each other concerned, Fu nodding as he jumped up on the stool and showed them the toaster again.

"Then there's these appliances from the break-in. Still can't quite read it, but the energy coming from it is dark, definitely distinctive, not quite the dark dragon's usual signature but pretty close." All three teens just continued to stare at him, Fu Dog shaking his head as he studied all three.

"Okay, I don't know what's up with you kids today but even though this is serious, Gramps said not to worry yourselves too much, we can handle this, we just need you kids to stay low for a little while to stay safe."

"Stay low? You mean just cower away like a coward?" Jake said, "uh-uh, if something's going down with the dark dragon for real we can at least help out!"

"I mean we did do this before," Trixie added in quickly as she put her shoulder around Jake and looked at Fu, "Twice-no, three times. We more than capable of this by now, don't you think?"

"No!" Grampa's voice boomed from behind them. Everyone turned to see the small man standing there with a very stern look on his face, softening to an almost pleading glance as he held something in his hand out to his grandson.

"This is too much for you this time, young dragon," "you've grown stronger, but you're still not ready to face such a great threat on your own, so I will handle it."

"But I-" Jake still tried to protest.

"No!" Grampa boomed, then sighed as he grabbed his hand and put something small and wrapped in his hand, "Now keep this with you at all times. It is a light talisman, capable of warding off the dark magic we may be facing. Don't take it off at any time, or it-"

"Won't work," Jake finished, stunned as he opened the small package to see an almost identical charm to Lian's. Fu and Gramps looked at him in surprise, Jake quickly playing it off by slipping the chain on and nodding his head at them.

"Got it Grampa, we'll just lay low, right guys?"

"Yup," Spud and Trixie agreed, giving him a knowing look.

Jake lay in his room later that night, staring at the two trinkets and comparing the two as he tried to think about everything that had happened. It had certainly been a full day, with meeting the strange dragon girl and the Dark Dragon's possible return and deceiving Grampa, needing much more time than he had to process it all.

 _What am I doing anyway? Man, it's supposed to be another year older, another year wiser, but I still don't feel any better at this job! There's still so much I'm confused about, and compared to Lian, I just feel stunted!_

 _"_ Your grandfather really keeps you shielded from the magical world doesn't he?"

Lian's words echoed in his head as he rolled onto his side, looking at her charm and noticing it seemed stronger than Grampa's pushing back much more of the shadows than the other one did.

 _Would Grampa really do that though, stunt my growth on purpose? And if so, why? What purpose does he have if he wants me to be serious about my dragon duties?_

Suddenly Jake heard a knock at the window, growling a little as he rolled over to see fu but surprised to see Lian at the window instead, smiling a little as she saw him notice her.

"Hey," she called to him softly, nodding as she held up her bag, "Open up, I got something to show you." Jake quickly got up and went over, opening up the window so that she quickly slipped in, smiling wider it seemed at the prospect of being indoors.

"Cool room," she said casually, standing up and getting right to business as she went over to his bed and pulled out a small, strange looking laptop. Jake peered over her shoulder to see the keys on her computer were identical to the symbols left in the shop, Lian scrolling through something in that same strange language until she stopped and pulled him closer, pointing.

"See?"

"See what?" Jake asked, confused, "I can't read this stuff, I don't speak Chinese." Lian looked at him a little surprised, scoffing a little as she waved her hand over the screen so that it immediately translated to English.

"And your grandfather calls himself a Chinese master. But here, see what it says? It's people in the magical forums talking, and this is them all talking about the Dark Dragon and were he's supposed to show up when he appears tomorrow." Jake read the screen and the places people were listing, his blood running cold a little as he saw his high school, Grampa's shop, and the airport were Rose was supposed to be tomorrow as the most listed guesses.

"It's all connected to my family, my friends….." he said, stepping back a little, "And the airport-that's where Rose is supposed to come in tomorrow, tomorrow night!"

"The Dark Dragon is supposed to come in tomorrow night," Lian reminded him, her face grave as she closed the computer again, "These places, you'll need to be careful there tomorrow then. It may just seem like gossip now, but the magical forums tend to be very correct on things this serious."

"Man," Jake groaned, sitting down defeated on the bed as he looked at the charms again, "This is a disaster, my girlfriend's coming in tomorrow right when Tall, Dark, and Evil is supposed to make an appearance again."

"This rose, then, it is a person, your girlfriend?" Lian asked, sitting down on the bed with him and looking at him concerned. Jake was a little surprised at how genuinely concerned she seemed for Rose, actually feeling better acquainted with her a little bit so that he smiled as he began to explain.

"Yeah, she's my girlfriend all right, best there ever was. She used to be part of the Huntsclan when she lived here because she had been forcibly abducted from her parents as a baby, even tried to slay me a couple times, but her love for me eventually won out and then things were great till she had to sacrifice our love for the survival of the magical world, and just like that she forgot all about me and was gone. I-I lost her for a while, and I felt so bad, but then she came back to me at the greatest moment possible, giving it her all to help us defeat the Dark Dragon and seal him in that temple." He looked to see Lian hanging on to every word, making himself sad suddenly as he looked down at the floor, balling his fist a little.

"She's still-she's still not all she used to be though, still trying to recover her memory and all, but I don't care, I'll give my life to protect Rose from anything I have to, including the Dark Dragon and whatever new tricks he may have."

"She sounds like an amazing person," Lian congratulated him, patting his shoulder a little as she smiled, "I heard she cut off part of his tail to beat him; anyone who can do that to the Dark Dragon I'd love to meet." Jake looked at Lian and began to ponder, lighting up as he looked at her charm and then her with a grin.

"Well hey, you're pretty strong, and you really seem to know what you're doing, so how'd you like to play bodyguard duty so we can make sure Rose and everyone stays safe?"

"Really?" Lian grinned, nodding her head in agreement as she flushed, so grateful she looked like she was going to hug him, "Yeah, I'd love to do that," she said softly.

"Great!" Jake beamed, quickly pulling up his comforter and tossing it on the floor as he jumped down and started to spread out. Lian looked at him confused for a second, stunned as he took one of his pillows and got down on the floor, laying down to go to sleep again.

"Jake, what are you doing?"

"Sleeping, and so should you," Jake said from the floor, motioning for her to lie down on the bed.

"But….."

"Look, you're not sleeping on the streets if your my bodyguard," Jake told her simply, looking directly at her to reassure her, "We're not doing anything, just two dragons sleeping, and from the looks of your eyes you could really use it." The two stared at each other for a while, Lian opening her mouth but then closing it a few times, finally shrugging as she curled under his sheets and almost immediately went to sleep, Jake nodding satisfied as he too laid down and went to sleep, his heart pounding for the next day.


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Jake awoke the next morning to find his bed empty, shocked and terrified of what might have happened to Lian the whole time he quietly got ready for school. Had she been taken by some Shade Demons or other evil while she slept, had she just run off alone to leave him to his fate, had her parents found her and assumed the worst and he was now in so much trouble it wasn't even funny?

But the whole time he got ready, from going to the bathroom to getting dressed to going down for breakfast he hadn't seen any clue of any of those things, and his parents were normal as ever as they came to the kitchen to quickly grab breakfast and run off to work.

"Have a good day at school, Jake," his mom waved him off as they both exited out the door together, she going one direction and he the other. As he walked a little past his stoop he suddenly heard a sharp whistle, looking behind the wall to see Lian crouched down and waiting, changed into new clothes and her hair wet like she had washed it.

"Hey," she greeted him especially cheerfully, stepping up and studying him a little, "Huh, so you really wear the same thing every day?"

"Hey, I don't need lip from the mysterious street dragon with such a big wardrobe," Jake snapped at her quickly, pulling her to the side to talk in private, "Where were you anyway, I was freaked out all this morning."

"I woke up and got ready long before anyone this morning to do some things," Lian said somewhat cryptically, smiling bigger as she noticed his raised eyebrow, "Come on, you have school now, don't you?"

"Yeah," Jake said, still just a little weirded out but just going with it as they began to walk along, "Let's go to school then."

"Hey-oh," Trixie greeted as she saw Jake coming up to the school, her smile fading a little as she saw Lian tagging along with him.

"Hey, it's the dragon girl, Lian!" Spud greeted, happy as he came up and gave her a clap on the back while trying to angle at Jake to talk, "How's it going? Good to see ya! Jake-why-is-she-here?"

"Spud!" The teen quickly admonished him.

"Jake, why is she here though?" Trixie asked, giving a disapproving glance at the smiling Lian.

"Look, she's stronger than me and clearly knows what she's doing, so she's gonna stick around to help us with the Dark Dragon business," Jake tried to explain to his friends, "Just trust me, alright? I got a good feeling about this."

"It's not you I don' trust, it's still her!" Trixie said, looking directly at Lian and looking for a reaction, "I mean, no offense missy, but we still know barely anything about you, how can we be sure to trust you?"

"Besides the fact I saved your lives numerous times yesterday?" Lian quipped back, raising her eyebrow at her a little as she smirked.

"Yeah, besides that!" Trixie quipped back, beginning to get up in her face and lian beginning to rise to the challenge.

"Hey, hey!" Jake quickly stepped between the two, trying to keep the tensions down, "Easy Trix! Look, she wants to help alright, so let's just all try to work together, okay?"

"Alright, alright, fine," Trixie finally relented, backing up from Lian but pointing a finger at her, "But mama Trixie got her eye on you."

"Okay well-Spud, can you agree to that too?" they all looked over to see Spud just twirling his fingers as he hummed to himself, jumping and paying attention as he saw their insistent stares.

"Yeah-yup! Spudinksi is on the case-or job-um-" Luckily for him the school bell rang at just that moment, the four teens all looking at each other nervously.

"So-um-what's my cover again?" Lian blurted out nervously.

After discussing it a few more minutes after the bell, the group had decided to introduce Lian as "visiting mom's sister's cousin exchange student Chinese" after a rather awkward and nervous run in with the homeroom teacher, managing to really make it work by explaining that Lian spoke so little due to the strep throat they had been "sick" with yesterday. Mrs. Grachi just sighed, shrugged, and went back to her desk, the story sticking so that by lunch time Lian was accepted as a full time student, blending in by just keeping nearly mute and burying her nose in the books given to her in each class. By lunchtime a few students had even introduced themselves to her, mostly freshmen boys who shyly tried to make small talk only for Lian to just smile as he gestured at her throat, winking at the group as she chuckled a little at her charade.

After a day of catching up with the whirlwind left from the first day of school missed, which fortunately wasn't too much missed this year, the four teens were relieved as the school day ended, no magical hijinks ensuring the entire day.

"Well, nothing happened but some extra homework," Trixie said as they walked down the street past the crowd, tugging at her heavy book bag, "That's a relief at least, if not disappointing."

"Could be, could be not," Lian said, smiling kindly at her as she took her bookbag from her, easily slinging it onto her back and walking much easier than the other girl had, "Just because something hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. We still have Grampa's shop and the airport, after all."

"She's right," Jake said, kicking down his skateboard and pulling Lian on, much to her surprise, "We're going to make sure everything is safe over there, and then we're going to secure Rose and everyone else until this Dark Dragon business is really in the clear."

"Um, I've actually never ridden on one of these," Lian gulped, for the first time appearing genuinely nervous to the trio.

"No worries, just stay up and hold on," Jake assured her, grinning as he kicked off and they went. Lian at first held on so tight he almost couldn't move, but soon relaxing enough that he actually seemed to be enjoying it, even laughing for a second as they coasted down a hill. Jake found it strange, but he also found it great, starting to really connect to her not in a romantic way, but a friendly care that she seemed to enjoy. It made him happy that she was happy, almost like she was a new friend that he wanted to be sure had a good time, and that's when he realized it, she was a new friend, and he did want her to enjoy herself after the rough road she seemed to be enduring, a thought that made him smile big.


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

As they pulled up closer to the shop, Lian suddenly grew cold again, jumping off the back of Jake's skateboard all of a sudden so that he almost fell off.

"Hey!" he quickly stopped the board in time, turning back to see her suddenly nervous and worried again. "What gives Lian, I almost fell-"

"You should go to the shop without me," Lian said quickly, her eyes flitting again just like in the alley the other day.

"What?" Spud looked genuinely distraught for a moment as he stopped boarding, "But I just came up with the best explanation for you, mom's sister's cousin visiting Chinese exchange student!"

"Spud, that's done with," Trixie shook her head in disappointment.

"Why don't you wanna come?" Jake asked her, "What if something bad happens at the shop, we'll need you."

"I'll be close by," Lian assured him, hiking up her backpack and Trixie's as she grinned at them, "Besides, I've got her backpack, so I'll be back to return it." With that, she started to run off, waving to them with a happy smile as she started to race up the hill.

"I'll meet you at the airport! Bye!" The group looked at her running away a little distraught, even Trixie, Jake sighing as he touched the charm in his pocket and picked up his board.

"Guess that's that then."

Walking down to the shop, the trio was quiet as they entered, still thinking about Lian's strange behavior when Grampa walked down the stairs, looking severely at them.

"You lied to me."

"Um…." Trixie said, quickly grabbing Spud and backing towards the door, "Jakey, I think that's all you."

"N-No I didn't," Jake tried to play it off, chuckling nervously as he gripped the back of his head.

"Grandson, do not make this worse by lying more," Lao Shi warned him sternly, his eyes cold as they glared at him with hurt and anger, "Now, tell me the truth."

"What-"

"What were you doing yesterday?" Jake looked down at his grandfather and saw that he wasn't messing around, incredibly conflicted on giving up Lian or still playing it cool.

"Why?" he tried to play it smart. Lao Shi morphed into dragon form and quickly rushed upon him, just for a moment Jake feeling his heart stop until he suddenly felt Lian's charm sliding out his pocket, opening his eyes to see his grandfather holding it up at him.

"Because you have two rare moon charms and I did not give you two." Lao Shi's eyes narrowed, the tension so thick in the room that Fu, Trixie, and Spud cowered before it.

"Who gave this to you?"

"I can't tell you," Jake said, lowering his eyes to the floor. Grampa's face lit up again with anger, throwing the charm on the ground so that it stopped glowing.

"Hey-!" he tried to clamber down to pick up the charm, but Grampa kicked it again, his face severe as he boomed at his grandson furiously for the first time in a long, long time.

"You don't take things from strangers Jake! That charm is powerful, very powerful, and in your inexperienced hands it's too much!"

"Whoa whoa, wait, what?" Jake cut him off, starting to get upset as well, "Inexperienced? Grampa, I've been doing dragon business for two years now-"

"And you have not progressed very far!" Jake poled back as if he had been slapped, waiting for his grampa to take it back and feeling his blood boiling when he didn't.

"Well who's fault is that? It's yours!" Now Grampa stepped back as if he had been slapped, the anger and much of the color fading from his face as his grandson and pupil yelled at him.

"The person who gave me that charm is clearly stronger than you, stronger than both of us, and in the two days I've known her I'm already doing a lot better as the American dragon than two years with you! It's not me, it's you, you're a bad dragon trainer and-and I wish you would stop treating me like such a little kid! I can do so much more without you!"

Huffing, Jake stared angrily at his grandfather for a few moments before bitterly shaking his head, picking up the charm from his grandfather's feet before turning to his dumbfounded and nervous friends.

"Spud, what time is it?" spud stammered for a few minutes, quickly looking down at his phone as he continued to look wide eyed.

"5:35."

"Good." Jake tucked the charm into his pocket as he continued to glare down at his pale grandfather, nodding as he walked over to the door.

"Come on then guys, let's go to the airport; Rose will be here soon." Trixie and spud continued to stare dumbfounded but soon let out their breaths and began to follow, the tension still high among the five of them.

"Jake, wait!" Grampa called after him. Jake turned a little enraged, softening a little as he just saw his grandfather sigh, looping a jade charm on his wrist quickly.

"This is for luck. Good luck tonight with Rose."

"Thanks Grampa." And then he was gone, slamming the door behind him for added measure.

Still thinking about the showdown at the shop, the car ride to the airport had started out rather tense and silent, only lightening up before they were dropped off with Mrs. Long mentioning the prospect of seeing Rose again after so long.

It had worked of course, but Jake was still worried about everything going on, most of all that it was starting to turn into nighttime and yet there had been no word from the Dark Dragon or Lian, even though she had promised.

Being dropped off at the waiting area, the trio was surprised to find Lian immediately waiting for them, fidgety and nervous as he gripped her backpack and Trixie's tight to her.

"Hey," she tried to greet the causally, setting Trixie's bag down on the ground for her, "This is the place, right? She'll be here soon?"

"Um, yeah," Jake said, raising his eyebrow at her behavior, "Lian, look, where were you today? You said you'd keep in contact and then you just bailed."

"I-had to take care of something very important," Lian said cryptically, smiling as she tried to change the subject, "You're right Trixie, the bag is heavy after a while, but I have to go to the bathroom now." The trio was puzzled as Lian quickly flitted away just like that, Trixie looking insistently at Jake as she smacked his arm.

"See? She's got to be planning something, Jake, something is up!" Jake felt himself feeling conflicted as he felt his arm feeling heavy for some reason, just looking around for Rose unsure of what to do.

"I-I don't know….."

Suddenly he saw what looked like Rose coming up from afar, starting to feel his focus return as he started to rush up to meet her, stunned as he suddenly saw Lian shooting off past him in the corner of his eye.

"Lian!" he called to her, pointing towards Rose excitedly. He was poled as Lian didn't turn around, but instead began to move more panicked towards the boarding gates, freezing in his spot at the shock of it all.

"Stop her!"

The trio all looked up at the sound of Lao Shi's voice, the small man being followed by the dragon council in human form.

"Stop! Stop her!"

"Lian!" Jake called to her, confused. Lian finally turned around, obviously distressed as she tried run faster, slowing down as she seemed to be weakening just as he had before.

Rose was running to him now, clearly concerned, Jake watching in shock as Lian tried to morph into Dragon form in front of all these people, Grampa quickly morphing his tail and managing to grab her leg, tripping her out so that she fell down on the ground, still trying to scramble up in a panicked frenzy to get up as the dragon council began to close in.

"Stay back, Jake, stay back!" Lian snapped at him, scrambling to gather herself up even as she was so weak to barely even stand. Jake, Rose, Trixie, Spud, and now Susan and Johnathan began to run over to close in with the Dragon Council, Lian's eyes beginning to glow so that everyone started to stare.

"Enough!" Councilor Andam boomed, suddenly striking his staff down, the room suddenly caught in a flash and then everyone bustling back to normal again, Jake and his group completely vanished as if never existing there in the first place.


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Jake opened his eyes to find they were all no longer in the airport, now in the magical realm in the dragon council hall as his parents and friends stared and stared and Rose clung to him and the Dragon Council all glowered down at the severely weakened Lian on the floor, Grampa especially staring at her as Councilor Andam spoke up.

"Take the fugitive away to the prison, and secure her well this time. She shall not escape this place again."

"Whoa, whoa, escape? Prison?" Jake looked down at Lian desperately, shaking his head as he tried not to believe his ears, "Lian, what is going on?" Lian turned in her weakened state and looked at him pitifully, her eyes locked on the bracelet on his hand as her eyes began to roll back into her head.

"So that's how you did it….."

"Did what?" Jake asked, growing more distressed and confused as he looked at the bracelet as well, "Lian!" He looked around at the group for answers as Lian was lifted off the floor by Councilor's Kulde and Omina and dragged away, Lao Shi being the first one to speak up as he began to pull Jake aside.

"Jake, listen to me, that girl is not who you think she is-"

"No, what is going on-"

"Please listen to me, grandson-"

"No!" Jake pulled his arm away, looking at his grandfather and the remaining councilor's insistently as he pointed after Lian, "Explain, explain yourselves, what are you doing to my friend?"

"She's not your friend, American Dragon," Councilor Kukulkhan spoke up, his face and voice stern as steel so that it chilled Jake, finding himself gripping Rose's hand and squeezing tight.

"That girl is dangerous, a serious threat to the magical world. She's maybe more dangerous than even the Dark Dragon himself, and certainly as powerful."

"That girl is the Dark Dragon's apprentice," Councilor Andam finished, his face severe as he looked down at Jake.

Jake felt like he had been really poled this time, his eyes widening then shrinking as their words sank in, his hands shaking as he began to crouch down.

"No…." he spoke out softly, feeling traumatized as he looked at the girl he once considered his friend being lead down to prison, feeling so disgusted and betrayed he felt dizzy for a second.

"Yes!" Councilor Kukulkhan snapped, his face angry as he began to admonish him, "Now that he is gone, she is the heir to his evil, and you almost let her escape!"

"Jake," his grandfather spoke up for the first time, his voice pleading as he gripped his wrist and looked at the charm, "I tried to warn you…."

"Warning him was not enough, Lao Shi, you should've intervened to take serious action as soon as you suspected!" Councilor Kukulkhan admonished him now, "Because of your inaction she almost vanished into the human world forever, and who knows what chaos she would have reigned then!"

"That's why I gave him the jade bracelet, to protect him from her magic and weaken her," Lao Shi tried to explain, "I didn't know what else to do."

"You should've reported his strange behavior to the council sooner, he's your student, it's your job to put his learning and the safety of the magical world over your duty as family when the time calls!"

"Hey!" Jake snapped at him, getting up to the angry councilor now to defend his grandfather, "Stop yelling at my gramps, it's my fault; I'm the one who trusted her!"

"Then you're a fool too, but it is still his responsibility to guide you through your ignorance!"

"ENOUGH!"

Everyone looked to see Councilor Andam fuming but pondering in the corner, in his dragon form now as he addressed all of them as the leader.

"That's enough from everyone! Now we have all played a part in this and now we must all deal with the consequences. Dragons, we are going to hold an emergency council tonight to deal with this threat once and for all, and humans, you are to return to your homes immediately, as this is not an issue to concern you."

"But we helped-" Trixie began to explain.

"Silence!" Andam boomed at her, Trixie quickly cowering back from the dragon nervously, "Everyone involved in this case may stay, but everyone who is not must return home now. We're going to hold a trial tonight, maybe the most important trail we've ever held here. This is no time for foolishness or improper audiences." And with that, the African dragon began to walk down the hall, Councilor Kukulkhan following behind subdued as they readied themselves for the meeting.

Grampa looked sadly at Jake for a second and then sighed, his shoulders dropping as he hung his head.

"Susan, Johnathan, return home," he told them lowly, "take Rose with you, she is not involved in this."

"But-" Rose began to plea, looking at Jake insistently. But he just shook his head sadly, letting go of her hand as he stepped over to his grandfather's side.

"Rose," he said, suddenly feeling ashamed to look at her or anybody really, "Go home. You don't need to see this." Rose looked at him in shock for a second but then sadly nodded, rushing up to him and giving him a tight hug and a peck on the cheek.

"Be safe, okay?" she whispered softly in his ear as she pulled away, trying to smile, "Get back safe to me. I love you." But Jake couldn't bring himself to say it to her, something in him feeling broken as he just nodded, staring at the floor as he mouthed the words "love you" to his feet.

"Nothing bad is going to happen to my son, is it?" Johnathan asked, looking down at Lao Shi with worry but determination as a portal opened back to New York.

"No," Lao Shi said, looking up at him for the first time since they arrived, "I promise. I won't let anything happen."

"Because if he comes back with forty lashes or something-"

"Johnathan," his wife cut him off sternly, placing her hand to her mouth as she shook her head, "Let's just go, nothing bad is going to happen, right Jake?"

"No," the young dragon muttered under his breath, still staring at the floor as his fists began to ball and shake as he squeezed tight, "It already has."


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Jake stared out at the council room as he waited for the trial to start, still another two hours left before the sentencing of Dark Dragon's apprentice was to officially commence. So far no other dragons had shown up, but from what he heard whispered from one of the many private council meetings it was supposed to be a packed event, everyone in the magical world eager to hear the fate of the infamous Lian.

Apparently, everyone but him knew about her in the magical world, the girl who just suddenly appeared out of the clutches of the underworld with the heartbreaking tale of being a prisoner of the Dark Dragon himself, for a few hours hero of the magical world until her own dark and awesome powers were unleashed. Her cover blown, it was rumored by some that she defeated the entire council to escape, others simply explaining that she had somehow found a hidden escape route in the council dungeons and maneuvered her way out; lesser than her had accomplished the same. Still, no one had inspired the man hunt that she had, with the magical world on high alert for a full year before the council suddenly just stopped talking about it all together, everyone assuming she had either been captured or neutralized and thus moved on to other worries, though never quite forgetting the panic the Dark Dragon's apprentice had thrown them into.

She had been smart, cunning, and so incredibly charming that her pleas were almost believable, but everyone knew that someone that powerful with the dark side was always just plotting their next move, ready to strike on the next unlucky sucker.

And because he had been unaware, kept in the dark by his grandfather on so many important matters like this, the American Dragon had now found himself that very next unlucky sucker, the laughingstock of the entire magical world for how stupid he'd been.

He'd felt stupid for a few hours, sure, but then he'd just gotten angry, the fire of rage growing deeper and deeper in him until he finally just went silent with cold rage, scaring everyone a little bit with how calm and quiet he suddenly went and the pissed look on his face.

He wanted revenge, he wanted answers, he wanted to swallow his memories and pretend he had never talked to her or started to care about her.

Most of all, he just wanted to talk to her and hear her side of the story, not all the rumors and little musings about her character but the real her, Lian the apprentice, so then he could tell her off and just wipe his hands clean of it all.

Hearing the council door open again, Jake looked to see Trixie and Spud coming out of the meeting room with the dragon council members, the two teens looking exhausted as they came and sat down beside him.

"Man!" Trixie exasperated as she plopped down, "Those guys really asked us every question they could think of! What happened then, why do you think that happened, what happened at the exact time, what did it look like-I mean there's being through and then there's being extra, and that was extra!"

"Yeah, I agree with Trixie, all of that has made my brain feel very tired," Spud sighed, leaning his head back and closing his eyes, "But what about you Jake, how are you feeling, dude?"

"I wanna talk to her."

Spud lifted up his head and opened his eyes as Trixie stared at him as well the dragon council and Grampa, stepping up with an especially distraught look on his face.

"No, Jake, no! it is too dangerous-"

"Yes, she will just fool the boy again with her charming ways!" Councilor Kukulkhan agreed.

"Maybe it could be useful," Councilor Kulde spoke up. The group looked at him in surprise, the man clearing his throat before explaining further.

"After all, she has not yet made a confession, and it is our custom to give prisoner the right to confess their crimes for verification."

"Bah, we don't need a confession! We already have plenty of crimes to pin to her as is!"

"But a confession could properly identify her power and influence as well, so that we hand down a proper sentence," Councilor Ominda agreed with Kulde, "she has been eager to see him too, the young dragon may help u achieve a better outcome."

"No one is going to talk to the prisoner," Councilor Andam spoke up as well, "you are already too close as it is, she would just manipulate you again."

"No, she won't." Jake stood up, looking the councilors straight in the eyes, "I'm not falling for her tricks again, I just want answers. Please, let me talk to her alone for a few minutes. I can get you the confession you need." The group looked at him concerned for a few tense moments, Councilor Andam sighing as he nodded.

"Very well."

"No!" Grampa shot up, rushing over to his grandson and pleading with him, "Jake please! This is too dangerous, you can't-"

"Stop it!" Jake snapped at him, feeling himself getting that same anger again like in the shop, "I need to do this, and I need to do this alone!" Lao Shi looked upset, but he still backed off, Jake standing up and following the rest of the council down to the prison to talk.

Hi mind racing the whole way down to the cell, Jake tried to remain calm and focus on what he wanted to ask the girl who had betrayed everyone so deeply. Why had she done this? Why him-but of course he knew that answer, to manipulate him because he was too trusting.

And if she wasn't here to protect him, then what was she here to do?

As the descent continued, the walls began to narrow and darken so that soon the council couldn't follow, instructing him to simply question her on a list of crimes and nothing else, for she was too slippery of a liar to believe anything else.

"She's very well secured this time, so you'll be perfectly safe," Councilor Ominda told him as she slipped him the scroll of crimes, "Do not inflict more damage than is necessary on her, though, for her trial is only a few-"

"I won't," Jake said, taking the list and quickly beginning to walk further down, "Bye."

As he walked further, the closeness of the walls and the darkness began to almost engulf him, Jake feeling skivvy and on edge as he had to scale along the walls just to get through and wondering if this didn't make people go mad to be down here. Finally he reached the door of Lian's cell, a huge rolling stone with a strange blue energy coming off of it, doing as he had been earlier told and sticking his claw into the tiny hole so that the magic recognized him and tumbled away, the stone rolling away slowly to let him in.

Lian was chained up against the wall with unicorn horn and sphinx hair so strong they made Jake immediately weak, his dragon form quickly falling away in the face of them as he stepped into the center of the room. Lian gasped in surprise as she looked at him, then cooled, pulling at the chains with greater vigor as the other dragon glared at her.

"Jake, you have to help me out of here-"

"No." Jake told her, his eyes cold as he glared at her in angry disbelief that she could still try to manipulate him, "I don't have to do anything."

"What?" Lian looked shocked, hurt, stopping her struggles to look at him in disbelief, and just for a moment Jake could see why she had gotten to him. She was cunning enough to be strong but then lapse into that innocent damsel in distress mode when she felt it convenient, only this time it wasn't going to work on him as he steeled his emotions.

"I don't have to do anything you tell- manipulate me into doing anymore, Lian!"

"I didn't do anything wrong-"

"You lied to me, Lian!"

"I did not-"

"You endangered my family, my friends, sent us on a wild goose chase for what?!"

"I'm not lying, I'm telling the truth!" Lian insisted, her face pleading with him just as Grampa's had, which disturbed him, "The Dark Dragon is coming back today for you, not your Grampa, and that terrifies you doesn't it-"At the mention of the name, hi blood ran cold, turning his back to her to try to shield this reaction.

"You don't know anything-" he began to mutter bitterly.

"I know what it is to be afraid of him, because I'm scared too, terrified," Lian pleaded with him, trying to appeal to him with a sincerity that indeed almost worked, "There's nothing I could've done but warn you and then get as far away as possible, because there is no stopping him this time! He will destroy everything if we stay! If you don't help me leave then Rose is in danger-"

At the mention of Rose's name Jake snapped, breaking his promise to the council as he flew at her and pinned her back against the wall, the sphinx hair making him weak but still strong enough to squeeze her throat dangerously close to breaking it.

Lian's eyes steeled too, the identical cold look she had given him when they first attacked each other, her voice low as she scoffed at his angry lashout.

"You're no killer, Jake," she warned him, her voice so chilly it sent a shiver down his spine, "You're a good little dragon, doing exactly what they tell you and never questioning anything even when it doesn't make any sense!" then she bucked forward, still powerful enough to buck him off a good foot from her, glaring almost cruelly at him as her voice went even lower, to almost a whisper, as she spoke.

"You wanna be bad Jake, take a walk in my shoes, then you'll know what darkness really feels like."

"So you're exactly who they say you are," Jake scoffed back, shaking his head at himself for even believing her in the first place, "You're evil, you're manipulative, a murderer, a convincing liar-"

"I lied to you?!" Lian snapped at him, pulling at the chains again, her anger potent this time, "Why don't you go ask Luong Lao Shi what he really knows, and then we'll see who's the liar?" The words stung Jake, because he didn't have any response, still himself unsure of exactly what his grandfather's motive were these days. Silenced, he simply looked at her, gripping the scroll in his hand as he waited for her to continue.

"Think about it for a moment," she asked him gently again, just as before, "I warned you of the danger. I protected you. I haven't told you one lie, even when it would've been convenient. And just like you, I want to keep everyone safe. Us leaving, disappearing into the human world forever, that's what's going to keep everyone safe. Think about it. Do you trust me?"

"No." The answer was immediate, shaking his head at Lian's shocked and poled face, his anger faded to just sadness and pity at her as he walked away towards the door.

"Jake please!" Lian's desperate begging hit at his back, Jake tempted to turn around but keeping firm as he griped the door and began to open it.

"No, Lian. We're done."


	13. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

By the time the trial was ready to commence, the moon was high in the sky over the council stadium, darker than usual just as Fu had said, but today so dark it seemed almost eerie. Still, the place was absolutely packed with dragons and even a few other magical creatures eager to see the now famous event.

Jake sat next to his grandfather with the council with his emotions in turmoil, quickly cycling between sadness, mistrust, anger, and confusion as he sat silently at the table tapping his fingers and staring at the spot Lian would soon appear. All of the pieces still didn't fit together, and he still had so many questions for everyone, shooting his eyes over for a second to Grampa and wondering what his own grandfather could be hiding? What had Lian meant him to ask? What was he still hiding from him?

"Grampa-" he started to ask as the old man turned, but suddenly the fanfare commenced, the crowd hushing as Councilor Andam rose from his seat and boomed out.

"Everyone! The trial of Lian the Apprentice for crimes against the magical world will now commence! Guards, bring up the prisoner!"

Everyone was tense for a moment as the door opened, gasping as they saw Lian standing in the doorway in heavy chains with a strange grey energy seeping from behind her, immediately devolving into boos and shouting as she was lead onto the stage. Jake watched her closely for any sudden movements, but saw that Lian just seemed defeated and out of it, twitching every few seconds like something was stabbing her.

The council and Grampa glared at the young woman as she stood before them, her eyes not pleading or angry but just still as they continued to condemn her.

"Silence!" Councilor Andam boomed, and the crowd hushed down immediately. Looking straight at Lian, he shook his head as he pulled out the scroll, reading off it and then closing it for a second to address Jake.

"American Dragon, did the prisoner confess to any of the crimes listed during your interrogation?" Jake looked down at Lian bitterly, turning to the councilor and speaking clearly.

"No." the councilor nodded and turned from him, addressing Lian again as he began to read from the scroll again.

"Then for the crimes you have confessed to, performance of the forbidden dark arts, being in league with the Dark Dragon for 12 years, lying to this court, the murder of 12 magical officials…" at the mention of the last charge Lian's head suddenly shot up, looking poled and distressed as she began to protest.

"No, I didn't do that-"

"Crimes in the Antlantic kingdom including theft and murder, robbery of the highest-"

"No!"

"impersonating a royal-"

"No!" Lian barked at him, angry now as she started to twitch incessantly now, starting to step towards him, "no, I didn't do any of those things; I'm innocent!" the crowd laughed at the outburst, but Jake wasn't starting to really believe her insistent pleas and becoming more concerned with her twitching, the grey smoke on her back growing as the moon began to darken.

"For these crimes and more we sentence you to death-"

"No!"

"To be commenced right now, at this very moment!"

Jake felt shocked himself as he looked at the color draining from Lian's face, turning to see his grandfather's reaction and a little put off to see him just sitting there nodding to himself, stunned that this seemed so simple for a man he knew as caring and nonviolent.

But suddenly there was a crack in the earth that rocked the entire stadium, the crowd beginning o panic a little as the crowd continued to rumble and the air began to grow dank.

"An earthquake?" Councilor Kulde guessed, worried as they all stood and tried to figure it out.

"Oh my god, the moon, look at the moon!" Someone screamed from the crowd. The council looked up to see an eclipse starting to form over the moon, a red circle forming quickly around it as shrill squeals began to fill the stadium and the shadows began to grow.

"We have to get out of here! Now!" Councilor Andam said, morphing into his dragon form along with the rest of the council. Jake was still shocked, looking down to Lian and frozen as he saw her shaking hard now, her eyes beginning to glow black as the grey smoke billowing from her back burst out into dark blue bursts of powerful energy

"He's coming, he's coming!" she was muttering frantically to herself, falling down on her knee as she closed her eyes, "He's coming, I can feel it!"

"Jake!" his grandfather shouted at him in the frenzy, snapping him from Lian as he began to pull his arm, "Come on, we must leave now!"

"Grampa wait, what is going on?" Jake still insisted looking his grandfather dead in the eye, "Was she telling the truth?"

Suddenly the ground cracked as strong lightning and smoke began to fill the middle of the stadium, a black pillar forming as Lian's screams rose above those of the audience, the girl collapsing down on her face as a huge draconian form began to emerge, everyone stunned as the Dark Dragon himself emerged in all his evil glory.

"Yes, she was." He smiled evilly as he opened his eyes, their awfulness settling right on the American Dragon and his grandfather.

"Hello, American Dragon."


	14. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Jake felt frozen as he stared at his old enemy, unable to believe his eyes as the humongous dragon spoke to him.

"And to think I almost had to wait for this moment for 1,000 years." Freeing from his shock now, Jake quickly morphed into his dragon form to attack, the Dark Dragon quicker as he snatched the smaller dragon up in his massive paw, Jake shocked at the impossible strength he was now captured in so that he could barely move.

"Jake!" Grampa cried, flying up at the dark dragon to rescue his grandson, the dragon council quickly following his lead. The Dark Dragon laughed and then roared as a powerful dark energy began to emanate from his body, an impenetrable field of dark magic forming around him and the stage that blew back the dragon council and leveled down the entire stadium.

Jake heard everyone screaming as the magic ripped down, his heart pounding so hard in his chest he thought it might stop. This was it, this was the worst possible nightmare he could ever be having, he had to be dreaming from the stress-but he felt the hand around him and his body being crushed and he felt the air dank and choking around him, trying to stay calm from the fear in his body.

The dark dragon laughed heartily as he saw everyone cowed down before him, licking his lip as he looked down at the severely weakened Lian.

"Did I not tell you they would not believe you, daughter?" he spoke tauntingly to her.

Jake's eyes widened then, looking down in pure shock at Lian, the rest of the crowd hushing at the words as well as Lian struggled to pick herself up.

"Daughter?" Trixie gasped, looking at Spud as they stayed huddled down in the crowd, "Man, old, dark, and nasty had a kid with who? That's so nasty!"

Jake waited for Lian to respond, to deny it like the liar he had been told she was, the girl instead seeming traumatized as she just stared at the ground wide eyed, slowly lifting her head to settle on Lao Shi outside the field, who was looking at her equally as stunned.

"That's right you fools, my daughter was telling you the truth, but you were too arrogant and sure of yourselves to believe her," the Dark Dragon gloated to the downed dragon council, eyeing particularly Lao Shi with his malevolent glare.

"Tell me, brother, what do you think now of my long-fabled heir?"

Jake felt like he had just been slammed with a billon blows, his eye as wide as they could go as he looked far down at his grandfather for him to deny it, to say it wasn't true.

But he didn't just hung his head in shame, embarrassment, and dishonor, Jake feeling his heart actually stop as all the pieces came together in a horrifyingly clear and treacherous picture.

The Dark Dragon was his grandfather's brother. His brother. They were related, so he and Lian were related, family. He was the American Dragon, protector of the magical world, and he was related to the greatest evil of all time, the greatest threat to the magical and human world.

And all Lian had tried to do was warn him and keep him safe.

And Grampa had lied and shielded him from it all these years.

The dragon council and the rest of the crowd stared at Lao Shi in shock as well, Councilor Kulde bursting out first as he looked at his old friend.

"Lao Shi, is this true? The Dark Dragon is really your brother?" The Chinese Dragon didn't say anything, just looked up at the Dark Dragon, a single tear forming in his eye as he nodded before morphing again and pounding at the field.

"Shin, release them! Release the children, NOW! It's me you want, so leave them out of this!" the dark dragon laughed as he manipulated the field with his magic to knock Lao Shi back onto the ground, hard.

"I'm not here for you, Lao Shi, you weakling," the dark dragon laughed at his old adversary, "You are far past your prime now. The boy will make a nice convert, though, as will as my wayward daughter." Jake felt his blood run cold, trying desperately to move in the Dark Dragon's grip and crying out as he was squeezed so tight he thought he might burst, gasping as Lian was suddenly trapped in a smaller bubble of dark energy as she looked up at him panicked.

"These two will be merely the first in my massive army to rule over the magical world and reclaim what is rightfully ours from the humans!" The Dark Dragon boomed to the crowd, "The time to fight is now, and I am back to lead it, not these weak old fools, me!" smiling triumphantly, he then looked down at his two captive, grinning as he nodded his head at them.

"We'll take our leave now, children." Jake tried to struggle as Lian began to bang against her bubble weak but desperate, the dragon council trying frantically to break the shield as its occupants began to transport.

"JAKE!" he could hear his grandfather shouting, "JAKE, NO!"

"JAKE!"

But just as it had started to cave, the bubble was filled with dark lightening and black smoke again, the screams of the two teens hanging in the air as just like that, they and the dark one had vanished.


	15. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Jake came to lying down on the ground, back in his human form as he felt the strength of sphinx hair all around him so strong he could barely stand. Sitting up just enough, he looked around to find himself in a cell eerily similar to the one Lian had been held in, the stones on the wall glowing with black magical energy that seemed to cage him in.

Lian!

"Lian!" He called to her, sitting up further and feeling the aches and pains in his body from the Dark Dragon, shuddering as he remembered his strength. "LIAN!"

"Shh," her voice came soft but clear from the opposite wall, "Be quiet. Just stick to the shadows and try to disappear-"

"Lian!" he cut her off, confused as he looked in the direction of the voice, "Lian, where are you?"

"Here." On instinct Jake looked up, stunned to see Lian chained a good twenty feet above him to the wall with strange dark chains, her face shrouded by the shadows but her eyes still glowing wide with fear.

"I told you we should've run. Now he's caught us and-" her eyes blazed down at him angrily for a moment, raising her voice as she pulled at the chain once.

"Do you believe me now, Jake?! I told you I wasn't lying correct?!" the words stabbed into him , and Jake couldn't look at her for a second from the shame he felt, crouching down on the ground and trying to look at things.

"How do we get out of here, Lian?"

The breath she caught echoed the walls down to him, Lian glaring at him incredulously as she snapped at him again.

"Out? Look around you Jake, there is no out! We're stuck here; we've lost! I've been in this cell many times before, there's nothing but darkness and weakness here, not freedom!" Jake felt something wet drop on him and looked up to see Lian crying, tears streaming down her face as she seemed ready to sob sorrowfully.

"You can't fight this, Jake, and I am not strong enough-we're going to die down here." Jake felt himself shaking for a little bit, the terror beginning to feel him as the walls felt like they were closing in and the air choking, his heart pounding again as he stared and stared at the ground, trying not to think about it-

"No." Lian heard him speak and saw him rise, her crying topping a she saw him unbelievably morph into his dragon form for a second, quickly swooping off the ground and flying up to her, the form beginning to fade right as they got eye to eye, his determined and undefeated as he slashed at the chain, actually managing to cut one of the links so her right arm fell. Just as quickly morphing back down, however, Jake lost his wings and hurtled back down to the ground, lamming down hard on the stone ground so that the room shook a little.

"Jake….." Lian looked at her freed hand still stunned, then even more stunned down at him, nodding as she began to pull at the other chain holding her. Jake nodded as well, grunting as he shakily picked himself up and morphed again, quickly feeling the effects of the sphinx hair doubly now but flying up anyway, getting up and swiping with his remaining strength at the other chin holding her, smiling even as he felt his wings fade and his body falling down again.

Freed, Lian quickly flung herself off the wall and morphed immediately into her dragon form, swooping down and managing to save Jake just before he hit the ground, the boy opening his eyes and smiling as he saw her hovering over him for a few seconds.

"I got your back," Lian assured him, setting him down and then collapsing exhausted into her dragon form.

"Like always," Jake said, chuckling a little as he stood up and stretched himself out, "I'm sorry I didn't believe you."

"But you believe me now," Lian assured him, smiling a little as she nodded at him, "Cousin, you've inspired me, so there's got to be a way out of here." Jake looked around, feeling small as he saw the tall walls that seemed to never end and the sphinx hair scattered on the floor, the dark energy sealing it all in so that it seemed impenetrable.

"Yeah, but how? You're right, there's nothing but darkness and weakness here, it's like a bottomless pit reinforced with sphinx hair and dark magic and we can barely keep our strength up. This seems hopeless."

"Not hopeless," Lian assured him, getting that same determined look in her eye as his as she pointed, "I have been here many times before, and now it all seems clear how I managed to free myself that first time. Not dumb luck like I had originally thought, but strategy and strength, and that is how we will get out of here again."

"Cousin, trust in me now like your life depended on it, because it does. We're going to get out of this hole today."


	16. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

"We have to follow the magic trail, we have no other options to save them!" Lao Shi insisted of the council, still surveying the ruins of the stadium where the Dark Dragon had made his entrance. Everyone had been cleared except for he, the council, and Jake's friends, now trying to decide the best course of action after so much chaos.

"We have no idea what could be on the other side of that; it could be one big trap!" Councilor Kukulkhan protested, "We should wait until we know more-"

"The Dark Dragon just came in here and took my grandson and-my other relative-we have to go and save them!" Lao Shi insisted.

"This wouldn't have happened if you had just been honest in the first place!" Kukulkhan accused him angrily, getting up in his face, "How do we know you're not part of this now since you have so many secrets?"

"If something bad has happened to my grandchildren due to your inaction, I promise I will make you pay," Lao Shi threatened him, his eyes steeled with cold rage.

"Hey, hey!" Trixie spoke up as she stepped between all of them, finally fed up enough, "Hey, my friend and my other friend just got taken by yall's big bad Satan dude and we just sitting here debating if we gonna save them? Naw, we gonna save them, because this is what yall are supposed to do, this is what's right!"

"That's right!" Spud agreed, quickly stepping up to support her, "Jake's our friend, and Lian we don't really know but she's our friend too, and if they're in trouble then we have to help them!"

"silence, humans!" Councilor Ominda snapped at them, "This is not your place to speak on this!"

"No, they're right," councilor Andam spoke up, holding up his hand, "these two dragons are our comrades and brethren, it is our responsibility to save them from danger."

"It is settled. Friends, it is time to gather up our strength and forces. We're going to stand up to this returned threat and save those two even if it costs us our lives, for the good of both worlds."

Jake grunted as he gripped on to the next stone, looking down to see Lian pushing him up as best she could and nodding as he stuck his foot in the best crack, lifting off her support and smiling as he saw they had again managed to scale a little higher up the imposing walls.

"Did you get it?" Lian called to him.

"Yeah! Did you?"

"Of course! I'm coming up again!"

Their plan was to scale the weakest wall as carefully as possible till they reached close to the top, flying out the rest of the way and then finding their way out of the fortress. Lian knew, she had had tried to do this many times before when she had been imprisoned as a child by her father, trying and failing and only once making it out, the night that she had finally managed to escape 3 years ago. At first it had seemed impossible, but as they kept going and Lian talked him through it Jake found that it was now starting to easier, the higher they climbed the less dark energy and sphinx hair there was to hinder their strength. It had given them a great opportunity to talk as well, Lian dropping her mysterious ways to really open up about herself and what she had been through, all of it quite a shock to Jake at how evil her father really was, especially to his own daughter.

"He threw me in here one time just for shedding too much hair," Lian continued to talk, scaling up to him quick but careful so as not to fall, "'Filthy human habit', he called it, and then he threw me down here for two days, no food, no water, just a pair of scissors to cut my hair off."

"What did you do?" Jake asked, grunting as he started to slip a little until he felt Lian supporting him again, looking back at her as she stopped to catch her breath.

"Well, I didn't cut my hair, that's for certain. It's the one of the few things I still have left from my mother after all?"

"What happened to her, anyway?"

"I don't know," Lian admitted, looking up as she climbed his back to get on top of him, like playing leap frog thirty feet in the air, "For a while I thought it was Chang-"

"Oh god!"

"I know! But thank god they both assured me she wasn't, but then when I asked-of course, he wouldn't tell me anything, except what a horrible influence she had been on me, and how I was too much like her." Jake felt her ahead of her and supported her light weight easily, still listening as he started to climb over her next.

"Before you, I didn't know I had a family. I've only known my father my whole life, and all the lies he's fed me about everything; it's taken my three years of freedom to see just how wrong he was on everything. Your grandfather-my uncle, he may have a lot of secrets, but he is not the enemy, just a man trying to protect his family from harm, even if that harm is me. I mean, did you see the way he looked at me when the truth was known? He said to free both of us. He cares, or at least more than my father ever has." Jake looked at her face as he climbed to see tears and longing in her eyes, his resolve growing as he made it over and staked himself firmly for her to climb next.

"We're almost there; we're going to make it out of here, and then you are going to come with me and get to know the rest of your family, the nice side." Lian sniffled a little a she sucked her breath and started to climb over him again, smiling as he touched his hand comfortingly as she went.

"Promise?"

"Of course," Jake said, the two beginning to go faster as he started to climb over her now, getting closer to the top "Though it is weird that I have an-you're my what, my aunt? But yo, you're like a full year younger than me, that's too weird."

"Cousin," Lian insisted, chuckling a little as she looked back at him and smiled, "We are cousins. Aunt is weird."

Suddenly Jake felt his foot slipping on the back of her shirt, gasping as he felt himself start to fall until Lian gripped his foot and pushed him up, the girl wincing a she felt the back of her shirt rip open.

"Ah!"

"Sorry!" Jake apologized quickly, scrambling up over her and gripping the stones for dear life now, "I'm so-"

He froze as he saw what looked like a big block of Chinese characters trailing down her exposed shoulder, the same black energy teeming from the walls teeming from them as well.

"Lian, what is that?" he asked, his throat tight at the possible answer, "Some type of magical tattoo?" it didn't help that Lian looked up at him with defeated eyes, just gripping the wall as she sighed and looked down at the floor.

"It's not removable," she spoke low, the echo barely reaching his ears, "it was not my choice to receive it, these physical scars of my father's abusive hold over me."

"But what-"

"Ancient magic bone markings, very strong dark magic. They stain the person's soul forever after they are engraved, digging right down to the marrow of the bones with their evil influence." Lian shook her head sadly as he opened his mouth to ask, climbing from under him and instead scaling up to his level, continuing to explain the grave details of her marks.

"I did not choose this, but I can't rid myself of their influence, or deny who I am. The only thing that can be done is to manage it, but you see, the more you are marked, the harder it is to be overcome."

Jake's eyes widened as he saw just how much of her back was covered with the markings, about a quarter of her back raked out painfully and scrawled down right into the very bone with glowing dark calligraphy.

"I know what people think of me, and they're right," Lian's voice quavered as she looked up at him with pleading eyes, "I have so much darkness inside, and I try but it just comes out sometimes. There can be nothing good in me with so much darkness. Light can't shine in there, just no light at all."

"Lian….."

"I came to you to spare you that fate, because I knew once my father came back, he would try to do the same to you." She reached his level across from him and looked at him seriously, reaching out for his hand as her voice warned him.

"Jake, we have to get you out of here. I'm already ruined, but he must not mark you too, or you'll end up a pariah, just like me."

"Lian-" Suddenly they both felt the floor shaking above them, frozen solid as the Dark Dragon was suddenly over them, smiling wickedly at the two teens hanging on the wall looking at him in shock.

"Up to your old tricks again, are you Lian?" he cackled at his daughter, "Well then, looks like I'll take you first after all."

The girl was frozen in terror as her father opened the top of the pit and moved to grab her in his massive paw, Jake quickly morphing into his dragon form and flying at him with all his might, teeth bared, managing to bite the huge dragon on the side of his hand so that he cried out and pulled back.

"Arrrrghhhh!"

"Lian, go!" Jake urged her, feeling his dragon form begin to fade, "The top is clear, you can make it!" Lian looked for a second, then dropped herself down at him instead, morphing her wings and pulling him up right as his form began to fade, the two quickly descended upon by enraged Dark Dragon as he slammed Lian down and grabbed Jake instead.

"Okay, so it's you who goes first then, American Dragon!"

Catching herself on the wall before she could fall all the way down, Lian morphed into her dragon form and shot herself at the large dragon with everything she had, knocking Jake from his grip and thus swapping places as her father grabbed her and dragged her up towards the surface.

Jake looked up to see Lian being dragged away struggling, her eyes glowing as she looked down at him screaming in terror.

"Jake!"

"LIAN!"

"JAAAAKE!"

And just like that, she was gone, her screams echoing after her as the Dark Dragon whisked her out of the pit to part unknown as he hurtled towards certain death.


	17. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Lian glared at her father as she lay strapped down to the all too familiar table, breathing heavy and her heart pounding but trying to stay strong and fearless as she looked at him readying himself.

"I am not afraid of you," she told him defiantly, rising up to look at him sharpening on of his claws on a slab of unicorn horn.

"Daughter, you are honest because you are terrible at lying," the Dark Dragon chuckled, still not turning from the task at hand, "I know you are afraid of me. I can smell it on you."

"Well, the American Dragon certainly isn't," Lian challenged him still, pulling only once at the strong dark magic bond that held her down, knowing it would do little good, "He has openly defied you again and again, humiliated you again and again, stood up to your might and beat you-"

"No one can stand up to the awesome might of my dark powers!" the Dark Dragon raged at her, getting up in her face as he growled menacingly, "Not even you, daughter, and soon you shall finally succumb to your rightful nature, the dark nature engrained in the very flesh of your muscles, the very marrow of your bones."

"The American Dragon, my cousin, he will escape you again," lian warned him, not letting herself be intimidated by his threats, "He's escaped already and he's going to come here and stop you, humiliate you all over again."

"No he won't!" Lian flinched a little as he brought his claw down dangerously close to her eye, closing it as he rolled the table over so that she was facing the ground, her back exposed for him to carve once again. Lian felt her breath quacking as she saw him place the bowl under her, unable to hide her terror anymore as she began to shake in anticipation of the dreaded moment.

"I've been waiting for this moment for three years, daughter, so prepare yourself. I may get just a little too excited and mess up."

"ANGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Jake heard the scream pierce the air as he lay at the bottom of the pit, surprised to find himself not dead like he was sure he would be.

Instead, for the first time in a while he felt himself surrounded by light, looking down and stunned to see he was lying on a shield of white light, suspended a good sixty feet above the ground below so that he was still close to the top.

"Anghhhhhhhhhhh!"

"Lian!" Sitting up, he quickly pulled himself to his feet and looked towards the top of the pit, the top not on because the dark Dragon had forgotten in his haste.

"I'm coming, Lian!" Jake cried, morphing into his dragon form and shooting himself up the rest of the sixty feet towards the top. To his great surprise, he didn't feel weakened at all even in the presence of the sphinx hair and dark energy, able to shoot far beyond the top of the pit and almost hitting the roof, quickly landing down on solid ground and looking back from where he had come bewildered.

"What the?" But looking down in the pit, he saw the white light still glowing, able to feel it's warmth even from where he was, and its power, its awesome power that could stand in the face of that pit of darkness.

"Lian." He nodded, looking to the door of the room and mentally preparing himself for a moment as he thought for a moment. "I'm coming."

Following his way through the old fortress, Jake grew more and more on edge as he made his way through the abandoned palace grounds, determined to find his cousin so that they could get out. At first he could follow the screams, but then the screams jut suddenly stopped, his heart running cold at the prospect that he was too late, that Lian was already dead or too corrupted-

Scaling the walls carefully, he jumped as he suddenly heard something moving in the next room, bursting in and gasping at what he saw.

The room was filled all along the sides and the walls with potions and brews and magic objects he didn't recognize, all of them deadly looking and glowing with dark energy. It was so packed it was cramped, but in the middle of the room there was Lian, her body hung limply on the table with her skin raked all over with claw marks but especially her back, glowing a sinister black as fresh blood dripped down and pooled into a bowl below. The site horrified Jake into shock for a moment, and in that moment the Dark Dragon struck out at him, roaring as he came at him, sharp claws bared.

"You shall fall under my dark power!" Jake spun and quickly struck him in the face, the dark dragon stumbling back in surprise and crashing through the wall, kicking the young dragon on his way down so that he crashed into the table, knocking it on its side.

Jake leapt up and quickly morphed back into dragon form, unstrapping Lian from the table and scrambling to get her away from her father's clutches as quickly as possible.

"Come on Lian, just hang in there," he spoke to her, still not sure if she was alive and dead. As he heard the Dark dragon getting up he quickly burst through the room, zipping through the palace as fast as he could to try to get outside.

"Arrrrrgh!"

"Come on, come on," Jake goaded himself on, promising not to look back till he got to safety even as he felt the black dragon right on his heels.

Feeling a claw dig at his heel, Jake desperately broke through the roof and shot clean up to the top of the mansion, stunned for a second to see himself back in Hong Kong, overlooking the city from on top of an ancient mansion.

"What?"

"Mmm….."

"Lian!" Jake looked down to see her waking up, laughing with relief as he set her down and began to beg her for help.

"Lian, do you know how to get out of here-" Suddenly the roof burst open right beside him, Lian bursting out in a scream as the dark dragon emerged like the evil beast he was, blue flames pouring out the sides of his mouth as he immediately lunged at the red dragon.

"Hnngh!" Jake grunted as he tried to fight back, pinned down as the bigger dragon came at him with a black glowing claw, chuckling at his domination over the young dragon.

"See if you oppose me now, hero!"

Jake felt everything freeze as he suddenly felt something so sharp it was cold burst into his shoulder, an awful scream bursting from his lips as he felt the pain vibrate through every pore of his skin.

"JAKE!" He heard Lian scream at him.

The world seemed to go in slow motion as Jake felt pain so bad it made every cell in his body feel sick, corrupted, his head turning from the Dark Dragon to see the moon lighting back up again and Lian picking herself up, her eyes glowing white as she focused dead on her father. Morphing into her dragon form that way, the light spread over all her scales so that she was as bright as the moon, the dark dragon turning from his pinned opponent and Jake actually seeing the fear on his face right before Lian crashed into him.

"ARRRRGH!" the big dragon crashed back down into the roof and looked at his daughter fearfully, Lian standing on shaky legs but looking at him triumphantly, blasting him right in the chest with a strong burst of the energy that poofed him into nothing but a cloud of smoke, his last shout echoing in Jake's ear as he felt himself passing out.

"Jake!" Lian cried, rushing over to her cousin quickly and throwing herself down on her knees beside him.

"You-" but he didn't get to finish a he felt something being pulled out of his shoulder and the awful pain fading down, catching a few hazy glimpses of other dragons surrounding them as he faded into blackness.


	18. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

 _"_ _Try to oppose me now, hero!"_

"Hnngh!"

Jake woke with a start from the dream, looking around in a panic and shocked to find himself back in his own room, a towel placed over his head and Rose sitting at the end of his bed.

"Rose!"

He was so excited and relieved he immediately reached out to hug her, feeling something awfully painful in his right shoulder so that he winced and drew back a bit.

"Jake, what's wrong?" Rose asked, her baby blue eyes wide with concern as she helped him sit up, "Are you still hurt?"

"Hurt-" But then he stopped as it all came flashing back to him, the airport and the dragon council and the Dark Dragon emerging, Lian and the fight on the roof, that claw-

"Lian!" he cried out from his remembering, looking at Rose desperately, "Where is-"

"Your cousin?" Rose shifted on the bed closer towards him, smiling a little as she kissed his forehead and held his hand. "Don't worry, she's safe. You're both safe; she saved your life back there."

"I know," Jake said, squeezing her hand as he smiled a little, "She was really great out there, brave, strong, smart-she reminded me a lot of you, actually."

"Figured that's why you two seemed to get along so well," Rose said, chuckling a little even as she raised her eyebrow a little, "If you weren't related, I might be a little concerned-"

"No, Rose, no." Jake tilted her head and kissed her lips, feeling his shoulder again but still smiling for his girlfriend. "Don't even talk like that, I will always love you, baby." Rose giggled, but Jake suddenly saw something move out the corner of his eye, protectively shifting his girlfriend back as he saw the door move just a little till he saw it was a blue-grey eye peering in.

"Come in," he called, nodding and smiling as he saw the other girl cautiously come in, clearly shy as she saw he was with Rose.

"Um, hi," she said, bowing to Rose a she smiled at her, "Very nice to meet you finally, I've been waiting for this honor to meet the girl who sliced my father's tail." Rose looked at her in confusion for a second, then laughed as she stood up, going over to the girl and giving her a tight, long hug.

"It is my honor to meet you," she said, smiling as she released the somewhat bewildered girl, "Thank you for protecting my boyfriend from evil darkness-thank you." Lian nodded, still a little bewildered as she turned to address Jake.

"Hey, can I talk to you in private for a second? Something important I need to tell you before everything else."

"Yeah, of course," Jake nodded to her, then turned to his girlfriend, "Rose-"

"I get it, I'm not involved in this, so I'll leave," Rose nodded, smiling a she went over to his bed and kissed him again, "I have to go now anyway, I've been here a pretty long time and I gotta go back now, but I'll see you tomorrow at school, okay?"

"It's a date then," Jake smiled, happy as he watched her leaving but then concerned at Lian's sad smile as she came over to him.

"Jake," she addressed him seriously, sitting down on the edge of the bed with concerned eyes, "I tried to shield you for as long as I could but I-"

"Hold up," Jake cut her off, sitting up and again wincing as he felt his shoulder, "Lian, what even happened? Don't focus on me right now, tell me what happened with everything else, like the fact that my grandfather lied about the Dark Dragon for so long-"

"And he's in trouble for that-a lot of trouble actually, and the dragon council is investigating everything, but Jake, the most important part of this might be about you." Lian leaned in close so that jake felt nervous and instinctively shifted back, her eyes flashing black as she reached out at his shoulder, Lian flinching painfully away as if she had been burned.

"Oh no….." she gasped, clamping her hand over her mouth as he looked at him in terror, "No, no, this I just as I feared!"

"What Lian?" Jake asked, scared now as he fought past the pain of his shoulder and sat up, looking her dead in the face, "My shoulder-you know, so what is wrong with it?" Lian kept looking him straight in the eye as she jerked down the strap of his tank top, Jake stunned to see a small black dot like a mole in the center in the middle of his collarbone, starting to feel sick as he saw how deep it went into his skin, all the way down to the bone as it glowed with black magic energy.

"He got to me," Jake mouthed out, still shocked as a single tear formed in his eye, "I'm-"

"Like me," Lian finished, a tear forming in her eye as well, "Marked with the darkness. Corrupted. You can feel it in you now, can't you?"

Jake felt his heartbeat, but it felt strangely hollow and empty, like there was nothing there but space to be filled. His body felt tight, raw, and his brain felt like it was squeezing in his skull, every cell racing but sick, diseased somehow as it went about its function, Jake panting by the time he came out of the focus and back to the outside world.

"It…changed me. Everything's-changed." He looked at Lian frantically, grabbing her arm as she pleaded with him to tell him it wasn't true. "But it's just one dot right, it's tiny! It couldn't have really done anything, could it?"

"You have changed," Lian told him, her eyes sad but her voice calm with determination, "You have been marked with the darkness, and it is not an easy influence to keep off, even with a mark so small." She watched as his face fell, quickly pulling his strap back up and picking up his head as she looked him dead in the eye.

"But I will help you. We will get through this, together. Don't you worry cousin, I've got your back now." Jake looked at her trying to smile at him and managed to smile as well, more tears coming to his eye as he nodded happily.

"Just like always," he said, pulling her in for an emotional hug.

 **And...that's it!**

 **Notes:**

 **1) For all of you who inevitably thought I was going to break up Rose/Jake for my OC...how ya feel now? No, I'm not breaking up Rose/Jake, I love them, in fact they're gonna be really important in my coming stories, but for now it was just not their time to shine because...**

 **2) Lian will be important. Don't like her? Too bad, because she's gonna blossom into quite the awesome and dynamic little character that I've always wanted to see in ADJL. Still not amused? Might wanna stop reading my ADJL stories then.**

 **3) As I've explained earlier, this serves as my kinda intro, hour and a half long Disney Channel premiere movie to what I would do if this show had more seasons. THEREFORE, my next stories with this series 1) will not be so long (except for finales to "seasons") and 2) will fill in a lot of gaps, have a lot more variety, and basically we're just gonna focus on a lot of things. Things I'll spoil now: We're gonna see Rose's twin, there's a secret about Spud, a lot of old and new characters coming back, including Chang, Nigel, and Fury, and the Dark Dragon will DEFINITELY be back.**

 **4) Again, I can't thank you all enough for the support! Even one more comment or review always makes me really excited, and I hope you guys are always excited to see my updates (though I kinda swamped you today, sorry!). I hope you'll stick around to see this story really pan out in some cool and twisty ways you didn't see coming, and if not, hope you enjoyed this marvelous ride with your favorite characters!**

 **faithwriter23 out (to go celebrate cuz I just finished my first story on FF, helllll yeah!)**


End file.
